Compiling

[Janina Sajka]

What I am about to say in response is the customary, GNU, way to do it, 
but not every package you download and unpack will follow the same 
procedure. Essentially, you have too look at the file list after unpacking 
and read whatever is available to read. Usually, you 'll find a README 
that's mostly about who wrote this, when and the license terms. Usually, 
you'll find an INSTALL or INSTALLATION (all caps on these) that talks 
about the steps involved. Usually, there are three steps:

./configure
make
make install

You put a dot slash in front of configure to insure you run the 
configuration script in that particular directory, and not some other in 
your path. As you've noticed, not all packages come with such a script, 
but when they do, you can read them. They're just shell script files (that 
begin with /bin/sh). So, where you do have one, try more configure to see 
what's inside one.

The make command does the compilation.

Assuming it exists with status 0 (no errors, in other words), there is 
usually a make install that copies to the directories where the program 
should live, chmod's as appropriate, etc., etc. If you don't want to take 
the defaults, you should edit Makefile after running .configure and before 
running make.

To learn more, try:

info configure

info make


 On Fri, 12 Jul 2002, Octavian Rasnita wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I've compiled the new links that supports Javascript and it seems to work
> fine.
> Well, I have a question about compiling, or better said, about Linux in
> general.
> 
> I've seen that I should give the command ./configure but I don't understand
> where is that configure file.
> 
> Can you tell me?
> 
> It is not in the current directory. There is no configure directory in the
> current one.
> And there is no configure file or directory in the root directory either.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Teddy Center: http://teddy.fcc.ro/
> Mail: orasnita at home.ro
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
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> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina at afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org